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"The tax is a burden for middle class seniors," Cates says. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that 52 million Social Security beneficiaries paid 6.7% of their Social Security benefits as income tax in 2014 and projects that will rise in the future to 10% or more..Prior to their recess the House of Representatives was able to pass 10 of the 12 spending bills that are needed to fund the government for fiscal year 2020. However, as has been the case for several years, the Senate lags behind. As a result, the Senate has been discussing combining various spending bills instead of passing them one by one..Because Medicare Part B premiums are automatically deducted from Social Security benefits, retirees find it difficult to fully anticipate the squeeze that rising Medicare Part B can put on benefits and their budgets. In the past 15 years the percentage of the Social Security COLA increase has been lower than Medicare Part B premium increase 9 times..Take a class: Work out your brain and memory cells in addition to socializing with others by taking classes. Some 119 colleges in every state offer noncredit classes designed for people age 50 and older. Osher Lifelong Learning Institute courses are available at very low cost. In Charlottesville, Virginia, for example, students pay a annual membership, the first course of the fall session is and then each course thereafter is only ..According to Representative Roybal-Allard, almost 80 percent of those over the age of 80 suffer from hearing loss, which leads to serious injuries and health problems when left untreated. In addition, nearly 70 percent of older Americans currently have no dental insurance coverage. In a letter of endorsement, Art Cooper Chairman of TSCL's Board of Trustees wrote: "It is essential for older Americans to receive the preventive care and treatment that is needed to maintain their dignity and ensure good health in retirement … Your bill would improve access to care for millions of older Americans, and we believe it would go a long way in ensuring the retirement security senior citizens have earned and deserve.".In a way that's not news. You already knew prices had been going up and so did we at TSCL. But it's nice to have the facts to back us up..The government will announce the 2017 COLA on October 18, 2016 and it remains to be seen whether Congress will take action to protect older Americans and state Medicaid budgets from unexpectedly high Medicare Part B premium costs. In response to similar circumstances last fall, Congress passed legislation that modified the Part B premium spike to the amount it would have increased if the hold harmless provision had not gone into effect..Included is the issue of surprise billing, in which patients are charged out-of-network prices for services they thought were in-network. This issue has gained great urgency because so many people are ending up with bills for thousands of dollars even though they have health insurance which they thought would cover the expenses for which they are being billed..But while FICA taxes and the revenues paid by older taxpayers on Social Security benefits are real cash, the "interest" earned by the I.O.U.s is a "paper" accounting entry. There's no dedicated source of revenue for that money. The money to repay the Social Security Trust Fund comes from general revenues, and Congress borrows more money by lifting the debt limit.